Men’s Conference

I enjoyed our annual men’s conference yesterday at the new facilities of Christ Saves (“Cristo Salva”) Bible Church in Querétaro. I drove 5 other men from our church. The four men in the back seat barely fit but there weren’t too many groans at the speed bumps! We heard from two elders of Denton Bible Church, Denton, TX and also from CAM missionary and director of Puebla Bible Seminary, Roger Oliver. The messages and workshops were good and the lunch was a great way to sample a few different kinds of Mexican cuisine. The cactus was excellent.

Today this church held a dedication for their new building and property. Interestingly, this land was purchased many years ago by a Presbyterian believer who donated it to the Bible church to develop as a church and community center. This makes the second community center related to a Bible church in Queretaro and ours in San Juan makes three in the area. Community centers are great ways to reach people with the Gospel and it’s great to see another one in the development stage.

Another little tidbit from yesterday’s time at the conference. The missionaries working with Cristo Salva mentioned that they might have a group with 45 youth come down in March to evangelize through kids’ clubs. They normally would have them do a lot of construction but there’s no funds available to continue the construction. The team was heading to a border city, Reynosa, for this trip until a week ago when the violent war in the northern states caused the international bridges to be closed in this city. This is the area where we cross about half the time we go to the U.S. and we were not aware of this development.

Please remember to pray for the drug war in Mexico. Last year thousands were killed in this war and the violence is escalating this year to higher levels. As you may have heard in the news, Mexico’s stability as a nation and that of its government is in a precarious position.

The photo above show a piece of the property where the bathrooms are located. It was very dry and dusty yesterday but in the rainy season when drenching downpours are common, I suspect a run to the bathroom during church service is a calculated event!

The view of the city from the “roof.” This is actually the second floor which needs to be built. The first floor partly underground since it is built on a sloping hillside. Makes a great play area but the drop-offs around the edges are dangerous…that’s what makes the games so exciting!

One of our workshops. Bryan Smith is translating.

Just getting started. I’m not sure of the final number but we probably had between 70 and 100 men attend the meetings which started at 9:30 and ended about 5:30.

As is often the case, the drive to and from with the other men was a great chance for me to practice my ever-rough Spanish skills and to enjoy some laughs…usually at my expense. I came up with some new words for the Spanish language which were well-received! My favorite invention was “hamburgrasas” for “hamburguesas” (hamburgers). “Grasas” are fats. We all got a good laugh out of that one as we passed our local McDonald’s (“of death”…the one here in San Juan is horrible).